The present invention relates generally to a crash site locator beacon.
The Alaska Air National Guard has an ongoing need for a way to mark an aircraft crash site from the air so that recovery personnel can locate the site at some later time. The Air Guard search aircraft can define navigational coordinates of the crash site based upon its onboard navigation systems, but the recovery team may have to use a small helicopter, light aircraft, or ground transportation to reach the crash site and these vehicles are not normally equipped with similar navigational systems that afford the accuracy and resolution necessary to locate the crash site based upon the coordinates passed to them.
The following United States patents are of interest.
5,299,227 - Rose
5,226,061 - Van der Veen
5,218,366 - Cardamone et al
4,888,595 - Friedman
None of the cited patents disclose a self uprighting 18 inch diameter hemisphere crash site locator beacon which is air droppable onto land. The patent to Cardamone et al discloses a water proof radio beacon. The patent to Friedman discloses a radio transmitter that identifies the type of aircraft to which it is attached. The patents to Van der Veen and Rose disclose small light weight radio transmitters for tracking soldiers or animals.